Pelosi: Trump comments on Navalny’s death ‘beneath the dignity of a human being’

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went after former President Trump on Monday for his response to the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, calling Trump’s comments “beneath the dignity of a human being.”

Navalny died Friday in a Russian penal colony, the country’s government announced, in what has been widely denounced as a likely political assassination. Trump first addressed the death Monday after being called out by Democrats for ignoring the issue.

Trump compared Navalny’s death to his own legal circumstances and did not blame it on Russian President Vladimir Putin, as President Biden and U.S. allies have.

“You wonder, what does Putin have on Donald Trump that he always has to be beholden to him, his buddy in vileness?” Pelosi said in an interview Monday on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.”

She said Trump’s statement was “beneath the dignity of a human being.” 

“It is so horrible you think, ‘No, somebody must have made this up. Not even Donald Trump could go this far,’” she said. “This statement should disqualify him from running for anything, much less president of the United States.”

Biden first commented on Navalny’s death after the news broke Friday, quickly pinning it on Putin and using the opportunity to call for military aid for Ukraine.

“Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. Putin is responsible,” Biden said. “What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled.”

“We have to provide the funding so Ukraine can keep defending itself against Putin’s vicious onslaughts and war crimes,” he continued, adding he is “contemplating” whether further sanctions on Russia are possible.

Ukraine aid is stuck in the House, after a bipartisan coalition of senators passed a foreign spending bill earlier this month. House Republican leaders said there is no chance the lower chamber passes Ukraine aid without action on the U.S. southern border, after Republicans killed a bipartisan border security bill.

“History is watching the House of Representatives,” Biden said Friday. “The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten.”

Pelosi also went after the House GOP leadership for delaying Ukraine aid, calling it a “disgrace” that the U.S. is yet to fund additional support against Russian invasion.

“We will get this done in the House,” she said. “It’s a disgrace that we haven’t done it yet. People will die every day that we are not supplying the weapons with the distance, with the speed, with the strength that is needed to defeat the Russians.”

“And people there know that if anything were to happen in Ukraine — which we must make sure it doesn’t in terms of Russia winning — that other countries are next,” she added.